From CBC News:
Japan has created an unusual government post to promote animation, and named a perfect figure to the position: a popular cartoon robot cat named Doraemon.
Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura appointed the cat as “anime ambassador” at an inauguration ceremony Wednesday.
While I’m aware that Doraemon is big in Japan, wouldn’t a Myazaki character or a giant robot been a more appropriate character to represent anime to the non-Japanese world. Personally, I’ve never seen Doraemon. A Japanese college of mine once loaned my some VCR tapes she had of Doraemon cartoons, but I couldn’t get them to play on my machine. I’ve never seen them in the video shop, either.
Oh…I just thought of this: Crayon Shinchan! Perfect!
Seriously, what’s the point of this? Promote animation where? People outside Japan who are into anime probably aren’t going to respond to Doraemon. People who aren’t into anime aren’t going to even notice a blue cartoon cat they’ve never seen before. That leaves a few children.
It could be that Miyazaki wouldn’t agree to allow any of his creations to be used. His are also mostly one shot deals, whereas Doraemon is an ongoing character. Doraemon is also non-threatening and non-violent. It would be hard for Japan to use something from a more action oriented or violent (and probably better known overseas) anime.
Pokemon might have been a better choice, as that has been shown extensively overseas and has a card game associated with it. This seems a classic case of some clueless oyaji picking something “classic” and much loved in Japan without thinking about the foreigners they’re supposed to reach. But once again, it might come down to cooperation from the studio/rights holder.
From what I understand, Doraemon is pretty huge or at least familiar in other parts of East Asia as well as in Spain and likely elsewhere. I don’t find it odd at all that they chose him for this post.
And while I love Crayon Shinchan, I’ve always found it hard to imagine episodes of this show translated effectively into other languages.
Guys, Doraemon is the #1 anime character around the world. Generations of Asians have grown up reading his manga, in pirated and non-pirated form. I think this is a great idea.